The present invention relates to a new and distinct strawberry variety named ‘BARAK’. The variety is botanically known as Fragaria×ananassa Duch.
The new strawberry ‘BARAK’ is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventors, Nir DAI, Zecharia TANAMI, Sara SLOTZKY and Ahuva DAOS in Bet-Dagan, Israel. The objective of the breeding program was to develop high quality fruit with high eating qualities and long shelf life.
This new strawberry ‘BARAK’ is a result of a controlled cross made by the inventors in 2004, in a greenhouse in Bet-Dagan, Israel. The female or seed parent is the strawberry variety designated ‘TAMIR’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,647, granted Jan. 19, 2010, Israel PBR (plant breeders' rights) application No. 4029/07 filed Oct. 04, 2007, European Community PBR application No. 2008/2105 filed 24 Sep. 2008, South Africa PBR application No. PT 5701, filed Jun. 5, 2009). The male or pollen parent is strawberry breeding line designated ‘ARO 730’, selected in ARO breeding program, Israel. The new strawberry ‘BARAK’ was observed and selected by the inventors as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross in April of 2006, in an experimental greenhouse in Bet-Dagan, Israel. After its selection, the new variety was asexually propagated by stolons (runners) in a nursery located in Bet-Dagan, Israel. The new variety ‘BARAK’ was intensively tested over the following years in a few small trial plots in Moshav Tsofit, Kadima and Qalansawa, Israel. This propagation has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new cultivar are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual propagation. The new variety propagates true-to-type.